


Emerald Eyes in a sea of Gold.

by Vander38



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 12:08:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20097001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vander38/pseuds/Vander38
Summary: The deepest roads hold the greatest of treasures.Also a small explanation of why there are no nugs seen on the surface of Thedas until Inquisition





	Emerald Eyes in a sea of Gold.

They come.

In countless numbers the horde comes.

Spreading from their forgotten holes they spill to take the surface.

They come.

Six weeks earlier.

Dust sprays everywhere as rocks collapse. The clattering shattering echoes of the rockfall slowly die away as Varric slings Bianca over his shoulder.

Varric, turns and sees the rest of us staring, “What you were gonna do that right?”

He’s right, I was going to blast the rock demon if he hadn’t.

I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that though.

“Varric we had a deal, I’m a girl of my word.”

I say, struggling not to laugh at the disbelieving look on his face.

“Guys, treasure, remember.”

That comes from Isabela, her priorities obvious as she moves ahead, hips swaying as she half walks, half runs.

Varric shakes his head and follows on, whistling quietly as he stumps after her. I tap Merrill, the final member of our group. She had been staring at the corpse of the Rock Demon that Varric had shot. She shakes herself then looks to me.

“C’mon Merrill, nearly at the prize now.”

I say and she smiles serenely, then she walks ahead of me, her bare feet padding along the stone. Leading me to ask, “Merrill, how do you walk everywhere barefoot?”

She looks around and just barely misses a pillar, “Well I put one leg in front of the other like you do, but without shoes.” Her voice is soft in her dulcet Dalish tones.

I sigh, Merrill has a gift of answering the question in the most accurate but unhelpful manner possible, it’s normally very sweet but now, deep underground in the haunted deep roads and abandoned thaigs of the Dwarves, it’s a little annoying.

I try not to let it show, scolding Merrill would be like kicking a puppy, she is just so sweet and cute without a malicious bone in her body. “I meant don’t your feet get cold or cut up or anything?”  
I say to clarify my question.

“Oh sometimes but I have salves and things, and it’s not like when I was in Ferelden, you have to watch your feet in Ferelden, because of all the Mabari.” She says, sweetly not swearing as she refers to the sheer amount of Mabari shit left around Ferelden.

“Yes Fereldan did have a lot of Mabari.” I say wistfully, I miss Fereldan, Kirkwall is nor the same, not by a long shot.

We catch up to the others. Isabela is pacing with a foul look on her face, Varric is crouched low, counting a small pile of thick gold coin, he bites one.

It is a small room, gold and treasure is in loose unorganised piles, it gleams slightly in the light of mine and Merrill’s staves.

“Where is it all? I thought there would be more. After all that shit we get just this.” Isabela says, her voice upset and angry.

Varric stands, looks to me and throws a coin to me. I catch it and take a close look at it, it has the relief of a long dead Dwarven king and runes I cannot read. 

“Each is worth a sovereign, maybe a little more for collectors, the weapons are probably worth something unless you want to keep them.” He states in a flat voice. He had hoped for more, we all had. The stories of the deep roads speak of rivers of gold, streams of silver and fountains of gems. All we had was a small cupboard sized room with a small pile of coin.

“Well we have a nest egg at least, a couple hundred coins each, a weapon each and we should be okay for a while.” I say, Isabela pauses to glare at me, then resumes pacing.

I pull out a bag from my rucksack, I had several, I had hoped for more, to secure safety for my family, a home of our own and a life where we worked because we chose to. Now though, we could probably get a decent place to live, maybe. I sigh as I crouch to scoop coins into the bag, I sigh again, at least it would be easy to carry back to Kirkwall.

There is a smash of metal on stone as Isabela vents her frustration by kicking a hollow statue against a wall.

“That help?”

I ask sarcastically.

“Yes.”

She says shortly.

“Feel better?”

More sarcasm.

“Yes.”

More short anger.

“That hurt?”

“Yes.”

Before I can reply there is a thunder crack noise as the wall that the statue fell onto collapses. Dust flies around in a thick choking cloud. A scream from Merrill as she clings to me.

A moment passes and the dust settles. I look up at the wall now just a pile of rubble head high, Isabela climbs then gasps.

I stand to follow, then tap Merrill, still clinging to me, shaking slightly, “You can let go now Merrill.” I say gently. She lets go and looks around, “Sorry.” She whispers, I smile at her and go to join the others on top of the rubble.

The room is huge, I can just barely see the end walls, it glows with golden light from the huge piles of treasure.

A thousand thieves could dream a thousand nights of treasure and not match the contents of this room.

Piles of gold and silver, great boxes with gems, racks of weapons and armour.

“By Andraste’s sopping wet, well used, gaping, hairy ginger cu-”

There is a crash, cutting off the end of my blasphemous whisper. I blink and look to Isabela, picking up a statuette. 

She shrugs “Mucking in right.” She says, a wide grin plastered on her face.

Music starts playing in my head as Varric joins Isabela in scooping treasure into sacks with the enthusiasm of kids and housewives in a chocolate shop.

I move slowly through, looking around, choosing carefully. I fill a sack with coin, universal and requires no negotiation. Other sacks I load with gems, blood red rubies, ocean blue sapphires, crystal clear diamonds and leafy green emeralds.  
Still more pouches I fill with jewelry, intricately worked and carved rings and necklaces, bracelets and chains.

I reach a weapon rack, I have no need for any of my own, my staff is good, but others I know could, a well balanced longsword for Aveline, a brutal greatsword for Fenris, another for Carver. There is a nice pair of matching daggers that Isabela would like, with smokey pattern welded leaf blades and the handles in the shape of naked women.

I walk back to try and find her, following her laughter through the alleyways of treasure.

I find Merrill, her face is drawn and she looks shocked, pacing slowly she wanders aimlessly, hands at sides. She barely seems to notice me.

“Merrill.”

I say and she jumps, then swivels her head to look at me.

“Are you alright?”

I ask gently.

She nods slowly, “There’s so much.” She says quietly, sadly.

“Want me to help you choose anything?” I offer, trying to keep the worry out of my voice and off of my face.

“Please.”

She says, her big green eyes slightly watery. She gently takes my hand and she leads me around as she picks and chooses her treasure, asking for my approval. I nod along and say yes to her picks, all very clever rather than just heavy gold. I watch her face, her clever eyes picking out valuable items, emerald green in a sea of gold. Her smile is soft and alluring as she talks, I wonder what her face tattoos mean.

After a while of watching her I reach into my pouch and pull out a necklace I had found. It was a delicate chain, each leaf shaped silver link shone brightly, the pendant was another leaf, silver veins supporting emeralds. It matches her eyes.

“Merrill, do, would, I would like you to have this, if you want it I mean.” I say, babbling slightly.

She looks to it, looks to me, her green eyes meet my blue, “It’s beautiful,” she whispers softly.

Then she looks around her, “I should give you something in return.” She says, slightly flustered.

I can’t help but laugh, “Merrill, I say gently, it’s a gift, you owe me nothing.”

She looks flustered, “Truly?” She asks, concerned.

I nod, “Truly.” I say then I place it around her head. She looks down to the leaf then back to me and she smiles.

“Thank you Hawke.” She says and she squeezes my hands.

The moment passes and I gently extricate my hands from hers, I don’t want to but Isabela has gone suspiciously quiet. I leave Merrill to her wandering and eventually find Isabela deeper in the treasure pile.

She is with Varric, looking strangely regal with a crown at a jaunty angle on his head, gold glitters over his gloves, around his neck and hangs from his earrings. He is practically doubled over, speechless with laughter as Isabela demonstrates something with a golden statuette.

“Isabela is that?” I ask in a squeak and there is a solid clunk as she drops the item.

“Yep, seems the Dwarves like to exaggerate.” She says laughing as she stoops to pick it up.

“It’s not exaggerating.”

Varric manages to weaze.

I can’t help but laugh at that, Isabela shoots him a pitying look, she strokes the item fondly. “So who will buy it, seems pretty niche?” I ask her and she looks at me strangely.

“I’m not selling, this one stays with me.”

She says stroking it like Merrill with a kitten. I have to thump Varric on the back as he chokes.

“Isabela, what exactly would you do with an eighteen inch solid gold phallus?”

I ask then immediately regret it.

“Oh Hawke I can do so many things with it, my imagination is pretty good and if you can’t picture anything one can do with it then I will buy you a night at The Blooming Rose.”

Her voice is purring and she ignores the dirty look I shoot at her.

“Why would the Dwarves make a golden rolling pin?”

I jump as Merrill asks from behind me, she is staring at the statue in Isabela’s hands, I briefly wonder if she knows what it is.

“First prize for a baking competition.”

Varric deadpans, somehow making his face wooden.

“Oh that’s clever. But it looks like the mold may have been faulty, it’s got those round things at the bottom and those ridges along it.” 

Merrill says, pointing at the offending features that would indeed make rolling pastry difficult.

“Adds texture.”

Isabela says, her face turning purple as she struggles not to laugh.

“Well if we are quite finished then may we get on? I would quite like to get back to Kirkwall soon.”

I say, hating to break up the festive atmosphere, but knowing it’s necessary for us to not starve to death in the deep underground.

We make our way back out of the treasure room, despite all of us loaded down with as much as we could carry, we had barely made an impression.

We find a path that sloped upwards and followed it, Isabela in front, the great phallus held slung over one shoulder, Varric just behind, still with the crown on his head, then Merrill and I at the back.

As we walk, I do some mental calculations, thinking about what would happen next. Aveline had once accused me of not thinking but she was wrong, I think a lot and planned a lot, but am better at thinking on the fly. The next few months would be interesting, I needed to go to the bank, store the gold and treasure.

Then I would go with Carver and mother to the Viscounts Palace, reclaim mothers property, no doubt I would need some gold to grease palms. That would take time, then more time and money to renovate the place, a sizeable estate according to mother, it was looking to be a long, expensive few months before we could settle.

I hear a noise behind me and turn, thrusting my staff towards it, a small nug tilts it head to one side as its surprisingly clever eyes look at me. I mutter an apology to the creature and it squeaks in a regal fashion before hopping away.

I quickly catch up to the others, they have resumed the conversation about Isabela’s giant phallus and it’s uses

“You could use it as a paperweight.”

Merrill suggests to Varric’s laughter.

“Well it’s clearly not great as a rolling pin, it wouldn’t roll smoothly, and it’s probably not good as a club because it is very heavy and too smooth to get a good grip on.”

She adds after a moment.

“I dunno Merrill, I think Bela can get a good grip on that, without her hands even.”

I say and Varric doubles over as Isabela glares at me, she is smiling 

Merrill looks slightly confused, “But how do you grip something without your hands?” She asks after a moment.

“You know when you have your hands full but you need to open a door so you put it in your mouth? Like that.”

I say and Merrill looks at the phallus, “Surely it won’t fit as it’s so big.”

“That’s what she said.”

Varric and Isabela say together.

I chuckle at Merrill’s slightly confused look, then sigh and bite the arrow.

“Merrill, do you know what that is?”

I ask and she nods shortly, “It’s a statue.” She says slightly crossly, bristling at the implication of ignorance.

I marvel once more of her talent of answering the question in the most accurate but unhelpful answer possible.

“A statue of?” I prompt.

She sighs like I’m a moron, “It’s a phallus, obviously.”

There is a collective moment between Isabela, Varric and myself as we digest the implications.

“The clan never had space for privacy, I saw a few, though none like that one.” She adds in a helpful tone.

“But why would you put one in your mouth though? They are normally held on?”

She asks after a moment.

“Kitten, when we get back to Kirkwall I will take you to the Blooming Rose and answer any questions you might have.” Isabela says fondly.

“Oh do they put phallus in mouths there?”

Merrill asks in a slightly excited voice that does strange things to my tummy.

“It costs extra.”

Varric states in a knowing voice.

A laugh from myself and Isabela, Merrill looks confused until Isabela leans over and whispers in her ear.

“But why does blowing cost extra?” She asks, still desperately confused.

“We’ll explain on the surface Merrill.” I say, motioning for the others to continue.

For maybe a day we walk, the path a confusing tunnel, twice we have to fight errant darkspawn, a couple more times we encounter nugs and have to stop to allow Merrill the chance to coo and play with them.

Eventually we start to feel fresh air and we speed up our pace, eager to get outside. We reach what was once the door but it was walled up long ago. There are small holes letting in fresh air, taunting us.

“Hey Bela.” I say.

“What is it Hawke?”

She asks, slightly wary.

“Use your phallus, get this door gaping.”

Varric bursts into laughter and Bela smiles.

“C’mon Hawke, gotta go for foreplay, not just bash it in.” She purrs in her alluring voice.

“Well everyone step back, foreplay Lothering style.”

I say and I take a grip on my staff.

The others retreat back as I gather power, static crackles around me, dust whirls in the sudden wind, I chant under my breath, a silly nonsense chant my father had taught Bethany and I when he was teaching us how to control our power. I close my eyes and take a deep breath then open them as I thrust my staff forward.

Lightning surges from the tip of the staff blade. It strikes the old stone and bursts through into the open air. The stone melts and shatters down to reveal the open sky. The most glorious sight I have ever seen. I rush into the doorway and stare out and breath deep.

A week underground and this is a heaven, it may be night, it may be raining, there may be two cows mating in the middle distance, but it is heaven compared to the underground gloom.

I turn to see Merrill hopping over the hot stone, and I wince in sympathy. Isabela stands next to me.

“Do people in Lothering like that particular technique?”

She asks in a deadpan voice.

“Some of the kinkier ones do.”

I reply in equally deadpan tones.

She laughs and leads the way as we head towards the nearest village, just visible as lights in the rain.

Behind us the first nug of many sniffs the air, then hops out into the open.


End file.
